Innovative Foresightedness in Strategic Management - Literature review Example

innovative foresightedness in strategic management BY [Name of the organization] [Author’s name] [Date of fulfilment] innovative foresightedness in strategic management Introduction The absoluteness for any strategic management lies over the act of performing a situation after a wider analysis. The analytical sector demands self-evaluation and proper investigations over the competitor’s strategies. As a matter of fact the analysis must be done on both internal and external positioning. It must be held in both micro-environmental and macro-environmental sectors of the organisational set up. In this paper I am making a wide analysis of these analytical factors. The backbone of my paper depends on the two comments stated by H. Mintzberg, and G. Hamel regarding strategic management. I have checked some of the latest ideas and have tried to determine how feasible and practical are these comments led by H. Mintzberg, and G. Hamel. Crafting Strategy The dominance of Mintzberg, H. “Crafting Strategy”, is very much well structured by many philosophers and practical managers. The idea was very clear. According to Mintzberg, H, “Virtually everything that has been written about strategy making depicts it as a deliberate process. First we think, then we act.” This is very well observed statement and is well knitted in the process of crafting the idea of strategy making in it. R. Suutari, agrees with this idea, but declares some additional elements that can make this point more practical and feasible. For R. Suutari, all kinds of strategies must get crafted and planned with the ‘intent must be modified by cultural and organisational constraints. The result is an emergent of realised strategy that reconciles the two influences.’ The whole matter is all around the activity of planning, tat is to think first and then to proceed with the planned follow ups. Added to this there has to be proper assessments made in order to have proficiencies in the respective section. As strategic decisions reflect the characteristics of the industry it s very important to have all kinds of determined factors to meet the competitive environment. idea of having lucky foresight As for G. Hamel, as stated in his “Killer Strategies That Make Shareholders Rich” “A key thing to remember is that truly innovative strategies are always, and I mean always, the result of lucky foresight”, too has been scrutinised by many people from the respective field. Managing strategies has got many kinds of conflicting and well interpreted platforms. According to R. Suutari, (1999), “Tale of Two Strategies”, there has been a regular confusion between planned strategies and the organizational based strategies. His interpretations are very clear and he determines a comparative analysis of both the segments of the strategic planning. As for R. Suutari, the planned strategy is all on the basis of the belief that any kind of strategy or management must be backed by systematic and total objective. This is more a matter of making a systematic arrangement of a management condition rather than application of it. On the other hand R. Suutari declares that the organisational strategies are more in concern with the implementation of the plan. It is more flexible as per the demand of the organization and every possible move is taken in order to have an absolute solution. While interpreting idea forwarded by Henry Mintzberg, R. Suutari clarifies certain points. Here the matter of discussion is regarding the crafting of strategies. For H. Mintzberg, crafting a particular strategy means, like a state when a porter sits in front of a lump of clay to make a vase. He has got al the instruments and all the resources in hand. What makes a wonderful vase is his sense of creativity and innovativeness in his craft. This is what is very much supported by R. Suutari and he totally agrees that while crafting or planning particular strategy for a management programming it is really important to have that sense of innovation in the manager. There should be an amalgamation of both traditional and all kinds of new approaches. The learning from traditional crafts and the novelty of ideas can be the foundation for a properly managed strategical set up. In case of planned and organizational strategic planning there are lots of troubles and they are all in the form of modes that can be well solved with certain tactical follow ups and intelligent application of ideas. Assessment factors Contemporaneous factors are very much there in support of these assessments and the application of proper objectives for strategic management. These objectives are all related to the time factor. They can be either short termed or may be long term. There is hardly any aspect that can be left untouched. For a successful strategic management, it is very important to have all kinds of preparations related to the time factors. The corporate objectives along with the mission statements declaring the organisational participation in the social sector are very much a part of strategic business unit objectives. These types of ideas are well scrutinised by Carol Lewis, in his ‘Targets are there to be hit, Lesson two: Creating a strategy’. Here he makes some clear declarations. In support of G. Hamel, he agrees that there has to be some foregrounding for the purpose of achieving ‘truly innovative strategies’ …are the result of ‘lucky foresight’. He agrees to this adoption of foresightedness and adds that there cannot be any kind of particular strategy for the purpose of rigid problem solving means. Every strategy is dependable on the perfect conditioning of the organisational demands. In his words, ‘Business brains can’t agree on a definition for strategy, but they do agree that the bottom line is always measured in pounds and pence.’ Carol Lewis followed and appreciated the ideas led by Don Sull. Sull was a professor of strat- egic and international management at London Business School. According to Don Sull, there can be none other some selective ways to make, and keep on making, money in a particular business. For him, it is very important to ‘seize an opportunity by exploiting a gap in the market’. The manufacturer E.Ink and the internet call service Skype are considered as the best example of this application. In ‘Winning’, he declares the difference gets counted when you are “coming up with the big aha for your business”. Lewis agreed this point out and out and supported the theme of being innovative. The strategies thus need to be determined on the basis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats or SWOT. He further added that ‘strategy should be about flashes of inspiration’. As for Gary Hamel, “The dirty little secret of the strategy industry is that it doesn’t have any theory of strategy creation. Whenever we come across a brilliantly successful strategy, we are all inclined to ask: ‘Was it luck, or was it foresight?’ A key thing to remember is that truly innovative strategies are always, and I mean always, the result of lucky foresight.” Lewis contradicts this statement and just question backs the matter of feeling lucky. He tries to calculate at what range of profitability a businessman can feel lucky. It is absolutely a state of ambiguity. Management accounting systems or as popularly known as MAS is for the provision of declaring information in context to strategic sense-making for a better application of the planned formulation. MAS is efficient enough in making systems-structural perspective identifiable. This is done absolutely on the functionality of objective determination and the application of all kinds of possibilities under proper administrative and functional management. Modern application To have an overview of today's corporation, it is very much clear that the management accountants have a dual reporting relationship in every organisation. He acts as a dynamic strategic partner and also the ultimate provider of decision that is made on the basis of financial and operational information. The role of the management accountants getting more multifaceted and the responsibility has grown to the periphery of managing the business team. They are also very much important in sharing the accountability having the liability to report relationships and responsibilities to the corporation's finance organization. Keeping all these factors as the necessary elements in today’s organisational scenario, it is very important to have all kinds of virtual deliberate process, as forwarded by H. Mintzberg. Keeping this need as mandatory Pedro E. Thormodsen states his ideas in a much clearer way. In his Innovation2.0, he declares that ‘the idea of innovation seems to be everywhere nowadays - in danger of being a high contender for the 2008 corporate buzzword-award. Suddenly, everyone is trying to sell different ways for businesses to be innovative.’ The sense of having ‘lucky foresight’ with innovativeness is what made Pedro E. Thormodsen think twice over the matter. He agreed with the idea led by H. Mintzberg and Gary Hamel. The conflict however lies in his question hat states that ‘But is it possible to introduce innovation to a business, just like you are trying to introduce a new coffee machine?’ This is a direct question to the matter of sustainability of idea in a business. It is always a competitive floor where one idea always surpasses another and that too in a very short notice. So the matter is under strict speculation. It is a continuous process where strategies must be flexible enough and there has to be a patternless patter in solving all kinds of problems that comes on the way of executing a proper business. The capacity to make prompt and appropriate decision is what makes the strategic plans a more constructive ground the same idea never last in the competitive market and thus the efficiency gets challenged all the time. For Pedro E. Thormodsen, it is thus always right to be prepared with all innovativeness and there must be a proper way of handling every single corporate deal. Dynamic perception C. Markides, (1999), in his “A Dynamic View of Strategy”, discusses about the equilibrium between opportunity and innovativeness. He totally agrees the point of ‘lucky foresight’, led by Gary Hamel. For him there is neither a neutral or benign influence in any kind of organization. On the contrary there can be perfection in the application of a particular mechanism for management control through scrutiny. The role of management accounting thus get better position to scrutinise and to come up with proper application of strategic plans. For C. Markides, the formation of strategy in itself must involve tough choices. It must heave the ‘products to offer’ and ‘activities to perform’. A proper choice in the field of ‘distinctive strategic position’ is the basis for the winning attitude of the competition. Just sustaining in the market, never mean business. There must be equal amount of energy and planning to grow. This growth has to be very much continuous in process. C. Markides supports the idea s has been forwarded by Jean-Paul Gaillard. According to Gaillard, for the situations as has been faced by Nespreso – ‘whether by luck or foresight’, Nespreso managed to be at the top in a span of five years. The crux of his success get revealed when it is well discovered that ‘the heart and soul of strategy is asking the “who-what-how” questions, developing alternatives and selecting specific goals and actions.’ C. Markides very much supported the ideas led by H. Mintzberg and Gary Hamel, however he insisted that without the consideration of ideas forwarded by Jean-Paul Gaillard, it is not possible to understand the proper application of strategy in a particular organisation. conclusion Eventually, it is all about having the innovativeness and the push led by the attitude eof having lucky foresightedness thata business man can have for better strategic results. These sectors are though very much sensitive and unpredictable the success get determined by the proper analytical study of the similar factors. It is al about learning and applying the formulation to get rid of all kinds of risks creating factors. To conclude it will be proper to accept the words of Mahmoud Ezzamel, Hugh Willmott and Frank Worthington, in their ‘Manufacturing shareholder value: The role of accounting in organizational transformation’. For them the strategic planning is as important as the matter of understanding the calculations led by the valuation determining the shareholders participation. In order to have a proper management strategy it is therefore very important to have innovativeness and the zeal to compete the market for proper sustainability and growth. References Carol Lewis, Targets are there to be hit, Lesson two: Creating a strategy, July 14, 2005, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/graduate_management/article543230.ece Hamel, G. “Killer Strategies That Make Shareholders Rich”, Fortune Magazine, 1997, 135 (12), pp70-84 Mahmoud Ezzamel, Hugh Willmott and Frank Worthington, Manufacturing shareholder value: The role of accounting in organizational transformation, Volume 33, issue 2-3, 2008, pp. 107-140 Markides, C. (1999). “A Dynamic View of Strategy”, Sloan Management Review, Spring, pp55-63. Mintzberg, H. “Crafting Strategy”, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1987, p68 Pedro E. Thormodsen , Innovation2.0, Thursday, April 17, 2008, http://pet319.blogspot.com/2008/04/innovation20.html Peter M. Clarkson, Yue Li, Gordon D. Richardson and Florin P. Vasvari, Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis, Volume 33, issue 4-5, 2008, pp. 303-327 Suutari, R. (1999). “Tale of Two Strategies”, CMA Magazine, July/August, pp12-13. Read More